Wednesday, 24 February 2010

Not such a nice day for a Greek picnic?

Well it seems my last post was my most popular yet,( a record of over 20 new hits and over 70 returning overall) from this a can reasonably draw three conclusions, one there are a few dozen people who actually like reading this quasi- intellectual rants, two there aren't but they do like watching the vids I embed here, and three the internet is filled with Anti-Semitism.

But moving on to another issue of importance. Greece, I'm sure your all no strangers to the news reports about all those street protests they seem to have one every year. There was that one back in 2008 where that poor young fellow (Alexandros Grigoropoulos) was shot then 2009 seemed to quiet down a bit if you ignore the numerous strikes and memorial protests for the aforementioned Alexandros like quite a lot of the media back in Blighty did.

Come 2010 and well it looks like its kicking off again this time though it isn't the police killing Greek citizens thats to blame its those International bankers who were killing the Greek economy thats got the Proletariat out on the streets. As the vid below makes clear its the old and usual suspects such as are good friends Goldman Sachs et all.

Now this isn't the first time the Greeks have had troubles with the EU, alot of the strikes in 08 and 09 where carried out by farmers and members of the Tourist industry who traditionally suffer from strong currency value like the EU had until recently as tourists are scared off by high exchange rates, and there are many places where you can buy agricultural stock much cheaper then what the Greek Farmers could afford. However things have taken a turn for the worse as it seems that the former Conservative government was well shall we say lax in the accounting department thus hiding the scale of debt and distorting the level of confidence that exists in the Greek financial system until like toxic debts the damn of lies and deceit overflowed and burst.

This is potentially a very serious problem due to the level of economic integration between all member states what effects one could easily effect the others. And to make matters worse several EU nations it now appears are guilty of the same or similar things including Spain, Portugal, and Italy which anyone familiar with Berlusconi's time as helms men can't really be surprised at.

Now I'm not an economist nor am I an expert on EU interstate affairs so I'm afraid I have no real solution, however one thing I am quite clear on is that to make the people of Greece pay for the crimes of there EX-government who opperated on the advice of multi-nationals and speculators behind close doors, who won't see anything close to a just censer or penalty for there recklessness. Punishing the poor for the crimes of the rich and the corrupt just never sits right with me.

Though I don't think these new waves of protests will sadly be enough to halt the "Austerity measures" especially how manipulated the footage of the protests will no doubt be on the 24 hour news services, they will hopefully be enough to force some much needed reforms within the EU. But I won't hold my breadth instead I'll just wish the people of Greece on the streets all the best and hope they stay safe.